Liangzhu Culture hydraulic works and flooding

Record summary

Liangzhu sites include a planned urban center, extensive dams, canals and reservoirs, reflecting complex water management during the Neolithic Yangtze Delta sequence. Some studies have proposed that unusually severe flooding contributed to the culture’s decline around 2300 BCE, while other explanations emphasize social, economic and environmental processes. The lead matters for comparing archaeological evidence of catastrophe with political transformation and migration. It should be treated as a debated paleoenvironmental model, not a demonstrated single disaster that destroyed the whole society.